She Lit A Fire
by malumprohibitum
Summary: After 3x11. The Charmings come to Killian Jones when the Wicked Witch of the West threatens all fairytale and magical creatures, including Emma Swan, the product of True Love. Jones and the Charmings see all of Emma's painful memories go into the bottle that Regina crafts for Jones to take back to Emma in New York City. More chapters coming!


Three-hundred and eleven days, eight hours, 15 minutes, and give or take 20 seconds. Whatever the count on days, hours, minutes and seconds it was, it seemed to Killian Jones that it had been decades since his Swan had smiled at him with that sweet, sad smile so full of promise, and eons since she'd kissed him with a fire that had reignited his ashen heart.

21 seconds. "Good morning, love,"Jones whispered to the sky as he picked up the worn axe resting against a stump near the castle walls.

Since Emma had crossed the Storybrooke town line with young Henry in tow in her yellow deathtrap of a conveyance, Jones had kept himself busy helping Snow White, Prince Charming, and the rest of the Storybrooke citizens rebuild their lives in the Enchanted Forest, and keeping his hands – well, hand, actually – busy chopping firewood_. _It wasn't that they needed the wood, really. Jones figured he should stay in shape just in case trouble should strike. (Jones had grown up in a time before jogging and push-ups, but after axes and hoes.)

Given the latest intrusion of a cackling green witch with a strange preference for winged monkeys as pets, that trouble would strike sooner rather than later, and he would have to be extra prepared without his savior around.

22 seconds._ This is a bloody art, really_, Jones thought. _The trick, Swan, is in the wind up, and making sure that the handle of the axe is ensconced in the hook, just so, _he thought adjusting his arm, pushing the handle up against his hook, and sliding it down its length. _I'll show you how it's done someday, among other things. _

23 seconds. (Of course, our fair captain had stayed true to his word, and not a day, not even a second went by without the glimmer of a memory of his Swan. Sometimes – well, most times, actually – when he was alone – and even when he wasn't – he would speak to her and, occasionally, speak her name to the wind hoping to hear his name from her lips from wherever _she _was. "Emma …" he'd whisper. _Emma_, the wind would taunt back.)

24 seconds._ Fancy chopping firewood of all things_, Jones continued thinking grimly even as a small smile crept into the corner of his mouth. _Firewood. No excuse now, eh, love?_ His stack of firewood was getting mighty impressive if he said so himself, reaching almost to the height of the giant Tiny's belly button. (That is, if giants had belly buttons; Jones wasn't privy to such information. He figured it would be rude to ask and even ruder to check. This was long before Henry Mills' book _Fairytale Land History and Anatomy_, which, as you well know, is now in its third edition.)

25 seconds. _Thwack! _"You and I, we understand each other."

26 seconds. _Thwack! _ _You heard, the queen, Jones. She's happy for once. Don't mess this up for her!_ Jones didn't notice the sparkly green dust that had shot out of Snow White and Prince Charming's castle, and was flying decidedly toward him

27 seconds. _Thwack! _"Good …"

"Emma …" _Emma._

28 seconds. The dust now swirled above Jones, then gently fell on him like a lover's caress. "Ah-choo," Jones sneezed mid-axe strike. _Thump-bump._ The log jumped off the stump and rolled quickly toward a pair of well-tailored boots running toward him.

Jones looked up and saw that the boots belonged to none other than Prince Charming, who flashed Jones a quick smile of relief. "I was hoping it would be you," Charming said to Jones.

"What's going on?" Jones looked over Charming's shoulder as Tinkerbelle zipped into view and Snow White waddled up briskly next to her husband. (This was while Snow was carrying Emma Swan's sister, Henry Mills' aunt, and Jones' future sister-in-law, who is detailed in Henry's book _Fairytale Land History and Anatomy_ in the chapter title "Saviors and Curses That Weren't Really Curses.")

"It's worse than we thought," said Snow, sitting delicately on the tree stump that Jones had been working on just seconds before.

Jones looked to Charming, who confirmed Jones' worst fears with a clenching of his jaw and a sobering of his usually hopeful and charming demeanor.

"We need her. We need Emma. She needs to know about us … that witch is after her after, everything we've built" said Charming, his voice breaking and shoulders falling realizing that he would have to take away whatever peace his daughter had found after all her years of heartache.

"Why come to me?" said Jones, looking from Charming to Tink and, finally, to Snow, who had tears in the corners of her eyes thinking that even if Emma's happy ending wherever she was now was taken away, maybe she had a chance at another one with the pirate. _The pirate and the princess. Henry would have loved to read about that,_ Snow thought smiling.

(Again, this was before the chapter on "The Pirate and the Princess: Why True Love's Kiss Doesn't Work With Memory Loss" contained in _Fairytale Land History and Anatomy_, which wasn't added until the second edition of Henry Mills' highly-regarded tome.)

Snow looked to Tink, who nodded back with a tiny smile while impishly revealing an empty pixie dust vial to Jones.

"You're the only one who can make her remember. You're Emma's true love. She just doesn't know it yet," said Snow, smiling gently. She may not have heard her daughter's first words or seen first steps, but she remembers the first time Jones and Emma met in the Enchanted Forest, remembers the first words spoken and the first weapons brandished. She even remembers Emma clocking Jones over the head with a solid object and knocking him out. She pinches herself for not seeing then what she clearly saw now: True Love. She may yet get to see her daughter's story find its happy ending, just as her and Charming found theirs all those years ago.

Jones looked over to Charming then back at Snow, hardly believing that he would have the chance to hold his Swan … Emma … again. "Help us bring her home," Charming said.

"As you wish, majesties," said Killian, not missing a beat.

"Gather up what you need, and meet us at the castle as soon as you can," Charming said. "Regina has a something back at the castle that you could use."

Killian hurried to his room at Granny's (which Granny had rebuilt as Granny's Diner & Bed and Breakfast: Enchanted Forest), grabbed his sword, a knapsack, two of his many long black coats, several of his all-black outfits (which he also had dozens of), and his flask. Once he was done packing, he rushed over to the castle.

Three-hundred and eleven days, eight hours, 25 minutes, and 13 seconds.

"I'm coming for you, Emma …" _Killian, find me …_


End file.
